Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is spreading throughout the deer and elk population of the West.CWD is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy similar to mad cow disease and scrapie in that it wastes the brain of the afflicted. Though no human has yet been identified as to having contracted CWD from an animal, the potential to do so has been demonstrated in an in vitro cell-free experiment.

Some say the vectors spreading CWD are the 16,000 elk being fed throughout the winter at Wyoming’s 22 feeding stations. They say CWD spreads rapidly throughout the closely confined feeding quarters, like Norovirus on a cruise ship. In spring, the elk move out into the surrounding countryside, taking with them the CWD.

Can CWD be managed?

Marc Cooke, President of Wolves of the Rockies, claims that wolves are the perfect means to control the spread of CWD among elk, deer and moose. “And it doesn’t cost anything!” he told the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission.